Similar Species: Although this plant is not likely to be mistaken for anything else, two other red-flowered beardtongues, Penstemon cardinalis and P. barbatus, are known to grow in the same area as P. alamosensis. The flowers of P. cardinalis, another endemic, are also nearly regular, but are constricted at the orifice (not constricted in P. alamosensis), have long yellow hairs at the base of the lower lobes (glabrous in P. alamosensis), and the anthers do not open across the connective (explanate in P. alamosensis). The flowers in P. barbatus, a widespread species, are markedly bilaterally symmetrical with the upper lobes projecting and the lower reflexed, the base of the lower lobes is hairy, and the anthers are not explanate. Penstemon barbatus flowers later in the year (June-September) than P. alamosensis.

Distribution: New Mexico, Dona Ana, Lincoln, and Otero counties, west escarpment of the Sacramento Mountains and east side of San Andres Mountains; Texas, El Paso County, Hueco Mountains.

Remarks: Straw (1997) considers Penstemon alamosensis to be the same as P. havardii, which grows from slightly east of the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and Texas, and from the Sierra Juárez in north-central Chihuahua, through Trans-Pecos Texas into northeastern Chihuahua and northern Coahuila, Mexico. The specimen of P. alamosensis from the Hueco Mountains could be P. havardii. Penstemon alamosensis can be locally common in its limited habitat in the Sacramento Mountains.

Conservation Considerations: This beautiful, conspicuous plant may be susceptible to collecting in a few frequently visited places. Otherwise, its habitats are relatively inaccessible and current land uses apparently pose no threat to this species.

Important Literature (*Illustration):

*New Mexico Native Plants Protection Advisory Committee. 1984. A handbook of rare and endemic plants of New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.